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Article published In: Pragmatics in African Contexts
[Pragmatics and Society 17:2] 2026
► pp. 196–222

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The discursive construction of femininity in metacommentaries on a rape-joke in Nigeria

ORCiD logo with link | University of Massachusetts Amherst
Published online: 28 July 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.24050.fil
Abstract
This article analyses the construction of femininity in metacommentaries on a rape-joke in a Nigerian online forum “Nairaland.” Discursive analysis of posts reveals that netizens supporting the joke mesh indigenous framing of femininity with Western epistemic authority enacted through intertextual references to American comedy. By drawing on both American examples and Nigerian cultural frames, they enact a hybridized identity and entextualise three feminized figures of personhood: fighting feminist, greedy girls, and village people. Netizens who are critical of the joke also referenced America in their criticism of the taste for gender-biased jokes in Nigeria. The ways in which both critics and supporters of the jokes mobilize indigenous and western perspectives suggest the hybridity of language and ideology in post-colonial contexts more generally.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The gendered context of Nigerian performance humour
  • 3.The Basketmouth rape-joke
  • 4.Methodology
  • 5.Agha’s Figures of Personhood (FoP)
  • 6.Analysis and findings
    • 6.1Setting the scene for figures of personhood: Authorizing through intertextuality
    • 6.2Fighting feminist
    • 6.3Greedy girls
    • 6.4Village people
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
References (26)
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